Friday, May 17, 2013

I LOVED this song as a kid. Then it sort of slipped away into obscurity before hearing it a few years ago on an 80's station. Now it makes my normal rotation in my drive home from work singalong where I am the greatest lead singer of all time. However, the video for this song is basically about a woman who risks getting AIDS by trying to sleep with as many men as possible. When you hear that "TWENTY...THIRTY...FORTY!!!" part, that's the number of guys she banging. I used it to learn my times ten tables.

If you though Olivia Newton John's "Physical" had a lot of shirtless men, then this is that video on steroids...literally for the some of the men in this video.

Still, I love this song. It would make a great advertisement for a gay disco today.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

I'm not familiar with any Coles growing up in the 1980's. Cole Hauser was an journeyman actor. Cole Trickle was the iconic race car driver in "Days Of Thunder". But other than that, I didn't know of any Cole's. It does seem to be making a comeback the past few years so I chose Cole Gate as this week's Garbage Pail Kid Of The Week. And to not lose the joke, for those of you under the age of 25, Colgate was an actual toothpaste back in the day. Let's take a closer look.

Cole looks like he's all ready for bed and like every good little kid, he's brushing his teeth. And what is using for tooth paste? His own tongue juices....yummy! Now I used to have a tongue scraper back in college. If you've never tried it before, I recommend you taking the $2.99 it costs at CVS and check it out. You will find things you ate from years ago...trust me. Anyway, poor Cole looks like he's not in any pain like other Garbage Pail Kids, but does seem to leaking fluids from his nose and mouth.

Two other quick notes. 1.) I like the anchors on Cole's pajamas...nice touch there. 2.) The bath towel says GPK. How nice of him to have an embroidered towel.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

I didn't own a Simon game but at least one person in my 1st grade class did and man did we try to beat this thing. Of course, I was 6 years old back then and my short term memory was worse than me today trying to remember things I said after a few beers. This thing kicked my ass...it kicked everyone's ass. I didn't know if you could beat it. The stupid commercial that ran for it indicated that you could...and if you did...you get women. Women with nice blond hair who wear terrible eye makeup and high collared shirts. And they'd hold your jean jacket for you while you played. Sadly, my childhood was not as awesome as it could have been and I blame you Simon for it...you son of a bitch.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Has it really been almost 6 months since I wrote anything on here? Work and free time has gotten the best of me but there's not a day that goes by where I tell myself..."THIS IS IT. This is the day I will update my website with something extremely profound about the 1980's." Then I get tired and end up watching Access Hollywood and terrible T.V. the rest of the night. Hitting your mid 30's saps your ability to turn your creative mental-side into something productive like a vanity blog.

But I digress. I will eventually finish this countdown...and in fact today we cross the halfway point. So without further ado, I give you the Top 15 Completely Unbiased Music Video Of All Time..."Talking In Your Sleep" by The Romantics.

This was one of those songs you'd hear in the 80's that has that beat that sort of leaps out of you. Its really just four parts. The kicking drums, the bass line and guitar part that are in synch with each other, and then the guitar riff that plays over everything else. That's pretty much it. There's not even a guitar solo. Still, you can't help but not tap your foot to it when it comes on. The song almost sounds fresh if it came out today.

The video, however, shows that this song was CLEARLY from the 1980's. Let's take a look.

0:00 - 0:11. There's that iconic beat, bass line, and chunky guitar riff. But who's looking at that when you are looking at a woman slowly disrobing. I mean "slowly" as in slow motion...remember, this was pretty high tech in the 1980's.

0:12 - If you freeze it right, you can catch a bit of side boob. Side boob is pretty common now on TV but in 1986? This blew my then 9 year old mine. It completely exploded during Elizabeth Shue's side boob in "Cocktail"...but I digress again.

0:16 - Oh boy, the greatest introduction ever to a two hit wonder band (they also did the popular "this will get them dancing silly" wedding song dirge "What I Like About You"). First you get them appearing in slow motion, then you get them appearing from the ground up (also high tech back then), and then you get the slow look away. This is awesome. And the hair! Look at that hair!

0:31 - I just love the lyrics of this song. The guy is basically telling his girlfriends that he listens to them talk while sleeping to steal their secrets. It's brilliant. I hope he isn't drugging them though.

0:33 - Nice little group strut there.

0:44 - More slow motion of girls dressed in 1980's "sexy" lingerie which today is considered granny panties.

0:56 - One of my favorite all time shots. Love how the band appears here. The guitar player on the left is really working that simple riff.

1:00 - Watch the drummer accentuate those double drum beats. You don't see "drummer face" too much any more but this is a perfect example of it.

1:10 - The bass player pretty much sums up how I play bass. Just bob your head and wish you could play electric guitar, drums, or sing like the other guys in the band.

1:25 - The guitar player gets his close up. Super close up. God, he looks like he's enjoying life. I relish him.

1:38 - 1:42 - Love the look by the drummer here.

1:55 - I forget about this part of the video...I didn't know who Marilyn Monroe was when I was a kid. Even Elton John's "Candle In The Wind" went over my head. I was like "who is Norma Jean? Wait, is she Marilyn Monroe's alter ego? Found in the nude? Who remembers that they sat in 22nd row of a concert?". Again, I digress...

2:08 - This is a great setup for the band. Why bands don't do this live is beyond me.

2:13 - More drummer face.

2:15 - More bass player head bobbing.

2:38 - I never realized he singer has the Billy Joel hair from "The Nylon Curtain/An Innocent Man" time frame.

3:03 - One last dose of drummer face and more band closeups.

3:36 - end: The singer gets in the face of the one woman and hopefully brushed his teeth before the shot. I mean, he gets really close. The last shot is pretty much all of the extras finally able to stretch their arms.

So all in all, the video still sort of holds up. At the very least, its a snapshot in time when wearing leather was trendy.

About Me

Hungieman was conceived and born on Long Island, NY. I love all things pop culture but despise senior citizen drivers and Tiger Woods' goatee. I hope to update this enough to have you come back from time to time.